One week after closing the $3.3 billion deal to buy Warner Music Group, Russian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik is sharpening his layoff ax, The Post has learned.
The 54-year-old chairman of Access Industries is looking to cut about 2 percent to 5 percent of the 3,800-person global workforce, sources said.
Warner is looking for cuts of between $50 million and $65 million in advance of a possible acquisition of rival EMI, currently owned by Citigroup. If that acquisition is successful, then Warner may look to shed even more from its payroll, said a source close to the company.
The cuts will come as synergies are discovered between the music giant and Access, sources noted. Warner is now being run as a unit of the businessman’s holding company.
Most of the cuts will come from employees working outside the US, a source told The Post.
Meanwhile, Blavatnik has hired a headhunter and is already sounding out potential new senior staff, likely in anticipation of an EMI roll-up, a separate source told The Post.
According to bond documents, first reported on by Billboard, Warner Music’s head of recorded music, Lyor Cohen, and head of publishing unit Warner/Chappell, Cameron Strang, have been elevated to the new nine-person board.
CEO Edgar Bronfman retains his board seat but relinquishes his chairman role to a Blavatnik loyalist, Stephen Cooper. Blavatnik, meanwhile, becomes vice chairman.
Also joining the board are the owner’s brother, Alex Blavatnik, and other Access executives, including Donald Wagner, Lincoln Benet and Jorg Mohaupt.
A spokesman for Blavatnik had no comment, while a spokesman for Warner Music Group declined comment.
Access Industries’ subsidiary Airplanes Music, completed a deal to acquire Warner Music on July 20 for $8.25 a share, valuing the company at $3.3 billion. The company was previously owned by private-equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital and Providence Equity.
Bronfman and recorded music chief Cohen also had sizable stakes. Warner Music houses some 13 separate labels including Sire and Atlantic.
The No. 3 music label houses a diverse lineup of artists, from Frank Sinatra to Linkin Park to Led Zeppelin. catkinson@nypost.com